COUNCILLORS have expressed concerns over pollution and traffic management outside a proposed new primary school on Portland.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s planning and traffic committee was asked to comment on a proposed Dorset County Council scheme to level the Marpol (marine pollution) towers in Castle Road and replace them with a school.

If approved, the Chesil Cove Federation School would include places for 315 primary school children and 26 nursery school places in a single storey building.

Coun Dominic Lonsdale said: “We’re talking about building on an industrial waste site.

“In 20 years time people will claim higher rates of the sniffles come from this school being built on this land.”

Coun Christine James expressed concerns over potential increases in the volume of traffic coming to the site.

She said: “It’s not just going to be children from Portland and that’s going to generate traffic.

“It seems to me that if we’re having a school for over 300 children, why not look at putting a bus into the plan?”

Coun Kate Wheller added: “I’m quite concerned about the location of the entrance.

“We all have schools in our wards and parents drive as close as possible to the entrances.

“We then have situations where children are walking between cars that are turning or reversing and opening doors.”

She also expressed concerns over plans for the school to use Officers Field for sports and fun days for up to 15 hours per week with the land being open to the public the rest of the time.

She said: “I want to ensure that teachers are not going to have to pick up glass in the morning before the children go out and that they’re not going to have to pick up needles before the children go out.”

The county council’s proposed scheme includes places for 315 primary school children and 26 nursery school children in a single storey ‘lozenge’ shaped building.

The site would have entrances on Castle Road and access from Lerret Road for staff cars.

An officer’s report said the design features at the site would include areas of sandstone pebbles and Portland Roach stone to create ‘interesting patterns and textures’ as well as a ‘Jurassic courtyard’ as a sheltered outdoor space in the centre of the building.

The report said this area would be inspired by ‘fossilised forms such as leaves, prehistoric crustaceans and dinosaur footprints with a single feature pine tree at its heart’.

There would also be a mix of grasses in keeping with Portland’s coastal conditions and to provide a habitat for the island’s indigenous species.

The proposed work also includes a biomass boiler to provide renewable heating for the school building.

Committee members unanimously backed the scheme.